An Event of Enormous Proportions

One of the things that can suck the life out of any non-profit both big and small is the “special event.”   They can tie up staff time, tax much needed resources, over-extend volunteer leadership, tap out donors and leave you feeling like the exhausted parent of a newborn with colic.  I don’t say this as a person who hates special events and has never done them.  I say this as someone who has won awards doing special events (Best Charity Event for five years by Gwinnett Magazine - a publication for the largest municipal county in the Greater Atlanta area and Georgia), has organized events for Vice President Joe Biden and Billionaire Michael Bloomberg in which both men complimented me on how well the event was run. 

I have coordinated the Pink and Blue Galas for Children’s Home Society of Florida which were one of the most profitable events in the Southeast in the late 1990’s.  Needless to say, I’ve been doing them for a long time and unless your event is bringing in a sizable amount of your operating budget or is making six figures, you might want to rethink how special your special events really are.   

Charities see special events as a way to raise awareness and involve donors both large and small.  There is some validity to this, but unless your event is well established like the Relay for Life, the Susan B. Komen Three Day Walk or Special Olympics, getting a new event up, established and getting people to attend is a real challenge.   There is just too much competition from other charities for your donor’s time and money.   That is not to say you should never do an event for your supporters, you just need to know what will work for your organization and the people that you serve.

For instance, if you have an organization that serves homeless youth, a lavish dinner with expensive auction times and party favors is does not reflect your mission and frankly your donors will wonder why you are spending all this money just to entertain them and not on your mission.  A dinner that is prepared by the your clients who are in a food service training program and an auction with paintings and sculptures from the creative arts program is a great message to send out to your supporters.  It’s meaningful, has impact and keeping it to 100 or 150 people is manageable.

I once worked at a charity that served adults with developmental disabilities.   The highlight of the dinners we did was the auction in with the clients paired with local artists to create beautiful collaborative pieces that our donors could not wait to bid on.  One chest of drawers went for over $600 and cost only about $25 to produce since the drawers were purchased from the Salvation Army and was transformed into a unique piece of art. 

If you are just starting to do special events or are continuing with events you have already established, keep a few things in mind:

• Are you doing this event because it reflects your mission or is it something a board member or committee head has always wanted to do?  Volunteer leadership is great but don’t let them talk you into doing an event because they want to try something they saw at another charity that does not fit who you are as an organization.
• Check calendars of other non-profits and your local business chamber to make sure your event is not falling on the same night for their big event. You don’t want to lose your donors to an event happening for another organization that they also support.
• Consider doing a shorter event on a Thursday night – start at 6:30 pm and have it finished by 9:00 pm.  You will pay less for the venue and catering if it’s on a weekday night. 
• Is it something that will engage your current supporters?  If your support base are young athletic people, a fun-run is a good way to get people involved and is affordable but will it end up raising what you need to cover your operational budget?  Having to create another event to cover what an event did not raise just puts more strain on your organization.   Ask your supporters what sort of events they would come to and if it means you have stop doing a sacred cow like a gala or golf tournament in which the attendance has been declining– then let it go.
• You can use cyber-space to help you raise money.  Some organizations are doing a “Non-Event Event” as a way to fund raise.  Do a live stream with an auction and a message from the Executive Director (ED) and get sponsors to support the cause without having to spend money on a physical location, dinner, etc.  The donors can speak to the ED or a celebrity host via the web. Auction items can be listed on places like Bidding for Good which offer items like vacations that only take a small percentage of the winning bid and your auction can be completely done on-line.
• Do smaller events that showcase what you do with dinners that connect
  
  donors with your mission.  You can probably get the food donated and have both staff and clients explain the impact that your organization has had on their lives.  Video tape the testimonials for use on social media.  That interaction is worth more than a 100 asks put together and will affect your donors in a profound way.
• Follow-up with thank you notes for those that attended and give them the final tally of what was raised and leave it at that.  Don’t ask for more money in that communication – that will only serve to turn them off – you want them to celebrate what you accomplished.

These are just a few ways that you can avoid the pitfalls that I see from so many charity events and can truly make your special occasion something profoundly significant for both you and your supporters.